First Electric Welcomes Snowden as New CEO
Posted on March 29th, 2023
Mark Snowden has been named President/CEO of First Electric Cooperative. Snowden will be responsible for leading and managing the cooperative’s almost 240 employees and 100,000-plus member accounts. He will also work with the Board of Directors to determine and establish strategic direction and operational policies of the cooperative.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity to lead First Electric. My goal is to continue building on the cooperative’s strong foundation that has been established under my previous successors and Mr. Crabbe’s past 18 years of leadership,” Snowden said. “For me, that all starts and ends with delivering the most reliable, affordable services possible and being accountable to the families and businesses we serve.”
Snowden joined the electric cooperative family in 1998 at Cimarron Electric Cooperative in King-fisher, Oklahoma. During his 24-year career at Cimarron, he had the opportunity to work and gain experience in key account relationships, rate design, marketing and accounting. With this experience, he was selected as CEO of Cimarron Electric in 2008.
After 14 years in the CEO role, Snowden accepted a position at the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) in Dulles, Virginia, as senior vice president of Strategic Services Group. His responsibilities included supervising, cost-of-service studies, rate design, KRTA results, Compass modeling, equity management, financial planning, long-range strategic planning, product and service development.
Snowden’s vast experience also includes leadership roles as director for CFC, trustee for the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC), past president of the OAEC Managers Association, alternate director for the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) Board of Trustees and past president of the WFEC Managers Association. Snowden graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in finance.
“Being a part of the electric cooperative network for the past 25 years, I have always been impressed with and respected the work that the First Electric board and employees do. The quality of talent is incredible here,” Snowden said. “First Electric has grown to be one of the largest and highest performing cooperatives in the industry, and that has me so excited to be joining them.”
Mark and his wife, Karen, reside in Cabot. They have three grown children — Austin, Blake and Morgan. They attend First Baptist Church in Cabot and look forward to visiting and participating in the communities served by First Electric Cooperative.